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Team Fortress 2: Polycount Pack

THIS CONTEST HAS ENDED.Winners will be announced July 12, 2010 with the Polycount Pack being released for Team Fortress 2 thereafter.

To coincide with the launch of the new Polycount site, Polycount is teaming up with Valve Software to bring you the Team Fortress 2 Polycount Pack. Yes! That’s right, an exclusive Polycount Pack for Team Fortress 2.

The guys and gals at Valve were impressed with the number of items created by Polycount members in the first ever community content update, that now they are dedicating a community content update entirely to Polycount.

Would you love to have your work be apart of that update? Then read on for our newest contest here at Polycount!

Pick a single Team Fortress 2 class and create a minimum of three custom items for them. These items can be made up of any combination of weapons (melee, primary, secondary), Engineer buildings and/or hats. These items must be cohesively themed and fit within the Team Fortress 2 universe and time period. Make sure your replacement item set maintains the existing functionality of the original items they’re replacing, specifically any Primary, Secondary or Melee weapons you replace in your set. Valve will be selecting the top entries to make it into the Team Fortress 2 Polycount Pack and the winners will be announced 2 weeks after the contest end date, on July 12th, 2010.

But wait… There’s more!

Runners up will get the chance to have their custom content appear in a future community content pack to be released some time down the track.

This is a visual change to the TF2 weapons only. Designing new gameplay & mechanics for your weapons is unnecessary.

Ideally, you will enter this contest alone. No group submissions. That said, if someone helped you on something specific (e.g.: Hair shader) then credit them in your notes and Valve will take it from there.

If a friend wants to do custom animations for your submissions, have them submit it through the TF2 Contribute! page and note that it is for your Polycount Pack entry.

All work created MUST be your own

You must be able to supply all source files of the finished products

You must create a minimum of three unique items for only one particular class (e.g. 1 x primary weapon, 1 x secondary weapon, 1 x hat – you cannot do 2 or more of the same item)

Your items must be a cohesive theme to Team Fortress 2 and should fit in the Team Fortress 2 universe and time period (e.g. No clown suits for the Heavy Weapons Guy!)

To maintain the Team Fortress 2 style and budget, here are some specs to guide you. The polygon budgets are not hard limits and use your best judgement for your items, based on these loose numbers.

Weapons

8,000 triangles

512 x 512 texture

Engineer buildings

Dispenser:

10,000 triangles

512 x 512 texture

Teleporter:

3000 triangles

512 x 512 texture

Sentry Turrets

10,000 triangles

512 x 512 texture

Hats

800 triangles

256 x 256 textures

Making sure that your items are within theme of TF2 and your class is very important for this contest! So, check out the bios of the Team Fortress 2 classes – straight from Valve – to better theme your items.

ScoutThe youngest of eight boys from the south side of Boston, the Scout learned early how to problem solve with his fists. With seven older brothers on his side, fights tended to end before the runt of the litter could maneuver into punching distance, so the Scout trained himself to run. He ran everywhere, all the time, until he could beat his pack of mad dog siblings to the fray.

SoldierThough he wanted desperately to fight in World War 2, the Soldier was rejected from every branch of the U.S. military. Undaunted, he bought his own ticket to Europe. After arriving and finally locating Poland, the Soldier taught himself how to load and fire a variety of weapons before embarking on a Nazi killing spree for which he was awarded several medals that he designed and made himself. His rampage ended immediately upon hearing about the end of the war in 1949.

PyroOnly two things are known for sure about the mysterious Pyro: He sets things on fire and he doesn’t speak. In fact, only the part about setting things on fire is undisputed. Some believe his occasional rasping wheeze may be an attempt to communicate through a mouth obstructed by a filter and attached to lungs ravaged by constant exposure to his asbestos lined suit. Either way, he’s a fearsome, inscrutable on-fire Frankenstein of a man. If he even is a man.

DemomanA fierce temper, a fascination with all things explosive, and a terrible plan to kill the Loch Ness Monster cost the six year old Demoman his original set of adoptive parents. Later, back at the Crypt Grammar School for Orphans near Ullapool in the Scottish Highlands, the boy’s bomb-making skills improved dramatically. His disposition and total number of intact eyeballs, however, did not.

Word of his proficiency with explosives spread, and it was not long before Crypt Grammar received two visitors: Demoman’s real parents, who lovingly explained that all Demomen are abandoned at birth until their skills manifest themselves, a longstanding, cruel, and wholly unnecessary tradition among the Highland Demolition Men. His unhappy childhood had ended. But his training had just begun.

HeavyLike a hibernating bear, the Heavy appears to be a gentle giant. Also like a bear, confusing his deliberate, sleepy demeanor with gentleness will get you ripped limb from limb. Though he speaks simply and moves with an economy of energy that’s often confused with napping, the Heavy isn’t dumb, he’s not your big friend, and he generally wishes you’d just shut up before he has to make you shut up.

EngineerThis amiable, soft-spoken good ol’ boy from tiny Bee Cave, Texas loves barbeque, guns, and higher education. Natural curiosity, ten years as a roughneck in the west Texas oilfields, and eleven hard science PhDs have trained him to design, build and repair a variety of deadly contraptions.

MedicWhat he lacks in compassion for the sick, respect for human dignity, and any sort of verifiable formal training in medicine, the Medic more than makes up for with a bottomless supply of giant needles and a trembling enthusiasm for plunging them into exposed flesh. Raised in Stuttgart, Germany during an era when the Hippocratic Oath had been downgraded to an optional Hippocratic Suggestion, the Medic considers healing a generally unintended side effect of satisfying his own morbid curiosity.

SniperIn his former life as a tracker of dangerous game in the unforgiving Australian outback, the Sniper would spend months by himself. Prolonged isolation taught him a valuable lesson: You don’t have to rely on other people if you never miss.

SpyHe is a puzzle, wrapped in an enigma, shrouded in riddles, lovingly sprinkled with intrigue, express mailed to Mystery, Alaska, and LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU! but it is too late. You’re dead. For he is the Spy — globetrotting rogue, lady killer (metaphorically) and mankiller (for real).

You must submit all the raw model & texture files for your items at the Team Fortress 2 Contribute Page. Each item from your set is to be submitted individually. If you know how to create them, including the Source engine compilation files for your items is very helpful as it allows us to easily test your items. However, this is not required for your submission.

Required:

Model source formats: .QL, .OBJ, or .MT

Materials source formats: .TGA/.PSD

Correctly completed Notes Template

“Anything else we should know?” section of the Contribute Page filled out properly. See notes below for information.

IMPORTANT: Copy & paste this template for the “Anything else we should know?“ section of your submission. There is important information your notes MUST contain to be eligible for this contest. Using this template will ensure those details are given properly.

NOTE: Updates and fixes to items may be re-submitted at any point after the contest. Be sure to specify that you are submitting a fix in the “Anything else we should know?” section of the Team Fortress 2 Contribute Submissions Page and the older item will be replaced.

Your own unique “self made” versions of your items which indicate that you are the original author

Your themed items released for Team-Fortress 2 in an exclusive Polycount Pack update to the game

Team Fortress 2 poster signed by the team

A variety of random Team Fortress 2 and/or Valve Software swag

Q. Can you run down the important dates for this contest?

A. Absolutely!

Contest begins: Monday, May 24th

Last date to submit your items for the contest: Monday, June 28th 2010 at 00:01 PST

The winners are announced: Monday, July 12th 2010.

Q. So wait, you’re telling me that not only are you doing a CONTEST with Valve, but you actually think you’ll announce the winners when you say you will? You’re crazy.

A. It was this sort of magic that convinced Valve we’re wizards, you see?

Q. What if I want to do something outrageous, like a clown suit for the Heavy? Can I still submit that?

A.’You’re more than welcome to submit whatever you like for this contest, and if its the best clown suit Valve’s ever seen you might even see it get released some day. But to win this contest, we’re challenging you with keeping your item theme within the TF2 universe. With that said, we wouldn’t be surprised to hear that you wrote a convincing back-story in your submission as to why the Heavy has a clown suit and some how Valve just couldn’t resist making it part of the TF2 universe. (Don’t tell them we wrote that, we’ll deny everything!)

Q. If I do a building for the Engineer, are all 3 levels for that building considered 1 entry? Or do I need to do 2 additional ‘items’ in order to submit? Also, do I have to do the 3 levels or can I do 3 ‘Level 1′ buildings?

A. Each level for your building is considered 1 item (of the 3 item minimum). So you can submit 1 Building with all 3 of its levels and that would be acceptable. However, please don’t submit just 1 or 2 levels for your building – Valve gets stabby when we make them do more work than originally planned.

Q. I want to make some melee weapons for my character. Do I have to re-model the hands as well, if so, does this add to my triangle count?

A. TF2 weapons are automatically attached to the hands of the character wielding them, so you can make things that strap onto the hands without needing to make new hands. If you make them attach cleanly to the existing player hand models, you’ll be fine for the future, because we’re not going to change them (it’d break all our existing items). The triangle count is for your model only, so it doesn’t include the hands you’re attached to